The revo is part of our history!!!

I cannot help but wonder how some of our people could be so tight-lipped and confused by the events of October 19th, which led to the 25th.

After thirty-two years, Grenadians cannot find closure of the atrocities that were committed in the most horrific way on Fort George by the same soldiers who were told time-and-time again never to turn the guns on the masses.

As a result of the events on the fort, this left Grenada crying in search for answers in trying to understand what has truly taken place in our country, which unfortunately would have bred hatred, bitterness, division and ideological fragmentation among our people with a concept of wounds are healed but scars remain among the nation.

There is still very much hurt and emotional hurt and many persons are still looking for answers after so many years after the demise of the Revolution.

The reactionaries and the haters of the Revolutionaries are still bitter as this nation continues to search for answers despite the tremendous gains and benefits that the Revolution brought about in only four-and-a-half years.

It is indeed a part of history that will never be brushed aside as many would have loved to see happen. This period was unmatched and unparallel by any other government in only four-and-a-half years.

People are still hurting because so many people had loved the gains and benefits that were brought about by a group of vanguard young revolutionaries who were guided by the Marxist principles and who thought it was a new dawn for Grenada.

From eight scholarships under Gairy in twenty-nine years to eight hundred scholarships under the PRG.

The National Women Organisation, Centre for Popular Education (CPE), Grenada Farms Corporation, Market and National Importing Board, National Insurance Scheme, which replaced the Provident Fund under Gairy, and the National Youth Organisation.

The period also witnessed the Point Salines International Airport now known as the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA), the Coffee plant at Telescope, the processing of salted fish, as well as the ordinary poor man’s son who went to study and came back as Doctors, Agronomists, Linguists, Engineers.

Our economy also saw economic growth of 7% in the absence of a tourism industry, agro industries utilising most of our local fruits like Tambarin, Gouva, and Mangoes.

During that period, we witnessed an end almost to illiteracy more so among the estate workers who had to make an x for their names – pushing up literacy rate to 98% in Grenada.

Most of the estates workers could not sign their names and it was a time of great community spirit.

The Farm school was created where our young men and women had the chance to study Agriculture Science and to further advance the sector.

We misuse the word democracy when it suits us.

I was proud to be associated with this glorious March 13th Revolution. I have never seen young school children coming out to support that demonstration and even used their own bodies as human shields to cover Maurice Bishop voluntarily on October 19, 1983.

Maurice Bishop was not just a good-looking mulatto – he was one of the best criminal lawyers with great charisma, but he also had a magnetic personality.

Remember the Revolution was in fact a social institution and there was also serious mistakes.

After the demise of the revolution the backward & counter-revolutionaries had joined in trying to discredit the gains of the Revolution.

Imagine the Americans together with some of our reactionaries said that our international airport was a place for Soviet military jets to be refueled as a strategic stop for supplying Arms to dissident groups in South and Central America. What a lie.

If the United States really wanted to free a nation then most likely it should have been South Africa, which was dominated by five million whites who were brutalising twenty-five million black South Africans under the evil system of apartheid.

This airport at Point Salines was a springboard for the economic take-off of our country’s future. Could you imagine that the American reason for the invasion was the Medical school at True Blue?

This is clearly a case of geopolitical ambitions. As a matter of fact the students’ lives were never in danger.

General Hudson Austin went directly to St. George Medical and held a meeting with Mr. Charles Modica, Chancellor of the university to guarantee the safety of the medical students.

Some of the same local reactionaries told Grenadians don’t worry because Grenada will now be a part of the United States territory and also that US dollars would have been flowing like rain into the contrary.

In the end we were setting back this country for twenty years, selling out all of our agro industries equipment to other countries that were more sensible than us.

As a people we have regressed so badly that it is literally impossible to catch up with those loses.

Like him or hate him, Comrade Maurice will go down in our history as one of the greatest and most loved Prime Minister in the history of this country.

In my humble view, October 19th should be a public holiday where people should remember the event with a documented spanning of our history.

It should be a period marked by the displaying of memorial plaques and photos from persons who lost their lives on Fort George, inscribed on a huge wall where our people can commemorate and find some closure.

Not much has been done over the years – I can recall that a Truth and Reconciliation Committee was set up to listen to the untold stories but nobody knows what happened after that one month where interviews took place.

The policy makers still have a great responsibility in bringing some closure to the people.